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Caught On Tape: Armed Off-Duty Officer Catches Alleged Subway Harasser

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A shocking scene unfolded on a subway train in Far Rockaway, Queens, this week, when a man whipped out a gun and forced another man to the ground – all to help a woman in trouble.

As CBS 2's Dave Carlin reported, CBS 2 News obtained exclusive video of the scene on the A Train Wednesday night.

The man seeing holding the gun in the cellphone video was praised for bravery a day after the incident, ending the torment of a woman straphanger by stopping an attacker and making sure he stayed there on the floor of the train until police arrived.

Witnesses say they saw a man terrorize a woman, pursuing her from train car to train car during the ride from Rockaway Park to the Broad Channel station.

The woman told a witness that the man was "a stranger" and "chasing her." The man threw a punch and she held up her arm to block it.

That was when the man described as a hero took action. He is a New York State Probation Officer, and he used his 9mm pistol to get the suspect on the ground.

Afterward, NYPD officers were storming the train car. Regulations required them to get the off-duty officer to drop his gun, and they ordered him to put it down.

They then took the man the off-duty officer got onto the floor -- identified as Jermaine Jordan, 33 -- into custody.

Jordan's last known address: a men's shelter in Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. He was charged with assault and harassment.

Police said Jordan has more than two dozen prior arrests.

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